"Jofra" wrote in message
...
Enjoying your little tiffs you guys. Obviously you both have a certain
amount of sense as you are both still around or else the gods have been
particularly kind....

Just come back from Fiji where we stayed for several months. Many of the
charts predate GPS's and the result is that they may be out by as much as
.33nm from the GPS position. Also the beacons shown may or may not exist
due to cyclonic weather. What does exist still is the reef system and is
quite a good idea to avoid. We watched 2 rather expensive yachts have
arguments with a reef and heard of a number more. Reefs are not much of a
problem on nice sunny days but when overcast it may become impossible to
"eyeball". What to do depends upon the circumstances.

However using GPS alone would shorten the cruise and you wouldn't have the
bother of sailing home.

jofra

Year before last we had a 38 foot sailboat enter Minerva reef by GPS. After
a couple of days decided to go out the other side via visual...Guess
what...Well they salvaged much of the equipment I understand. Seems to me
visual shortened their cruise and cost a lot of money.

Jim Donohue

Jim